Out of nowhere, are the Saints marching to the pointy end of the table?

It was another remarkable round in the AFL with highlights everywhere. It started on Friday night with the magnificent care shown by Geelong Coach, Chris Scott to Mitch Clark.

The former Melbourne and Brisbane player continues to be troubled by depression, which forced him out of the game for more than 12 months and from the Demons.

He was struggling late in the Cats’ excellent win over Collingwood, which was sad to see and hear, but Scott quickly recognised that and was superb in the way he treated Clarke and his situation.

Many people don’t understand and in some cases refuse to understand mental illness, but Mitch Clark seems to be great hands with Scott and the Geelong football club. They should be very proud of their efforts.

On the field they should also be proud of their performance to put them back in touch with the top four, particularly the first half when they destroyed Collingwood.

Elsewhere, the GWS Giants secured the biggest scalp of their short history by beating Hawthorn.

They showed they could be a legitimate finals contender with all of those early draft picks in 2011 and 2012 developing nicely.

West Coast seems to have shed the flat-track bully tag by defeating Port Adelaide at home at the Adelaide Oval.

Brisbane after a tough week showed guts and determination to open their account against a besieged Carlton, and then there’s St Kilda.

The young saints staged their equal biggest fightback coming from 55 points down early in the third term to swamp a disappointing and tired Western Bulldogs and it was their young players that turned the game.

Both teams have exciting talent and with the Bulldogs’ great start to the season, their young guns like Jake Stringer, Marcus Bontempelli and Jack Macrae have been spoken about glowingly.

However, the Saints – after some barren recruiting years when they were in contention to win that elusive flag between 2008 and 2010, but just fell short – appear to have that side right now.

Jack Billings is the cream of the Saints’ crop of ‘Jacks’. The Saints gleefully chose him as pick three in the 2013 national draft and he has match-winner written all over him.

He kicked three in the last quarter in the brilliant win over the dogs. Jack Steven is already one of the team’s best midfielders. Jack Newnes has established himself as a mr reliable and two small forwards in Jack Sinclair and Jack Lonie are having excellent debut seasons.

There’s also the number one draft pick in Patrick McCartin, who is seen as the heir apparent to Nick Reiwoldt and key defender, Brendan Goddard, who are raw and not ready yet, but should be the bookends in the long term the club needs.

Tom Hickey and Billy Longer have the potential to be a fine ruck combination as well and with Reiwoldt, Leigh Montagna and quality defender, Sean Dempster leading the experienced brigade the saints are in good hands.

They have had one bad game so far against Collingwood and would be disappointed with their second half in Wellington when they lost to Carlton, but generally they have performed well and seem to be ahead of most predictions.

Alan Richardson – as you would expect – was concerned that they could be so badly outplayed in the first half, but that blistering second half showed what they are capable of.

Like Geelong and Mitch Clark, the Saints are also in good hands. When those Jacks are in form they are genuine aces in the pack.